Frenchman Randy de Puniet suffered a broken leg at the Sachsenring.

A three-rider crash in Sunday’s German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring saw in-form Frenchman Randy de Puniet suffer a broken leg similar to that of Valentino Rossi’s.

The LCR Honda rider crashed in the early stages of the 30-lap race, causing a red flag as Spanish rookies Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista also crashed after coming together with de Puniet’s Honda.

“It can’t be worse than this,” de Puniet admitted. “Suddenly I crashed at exit of turn four and another bike hit my left leg. I immediately realised that it was something serious and after the X-ray we discovered the truth.”

De Puniet had earlier been involved in a scary qualifying crash that saw him cartwheel over Ben Spies’ Tech 3 Yamaha, the pair crashing out on oil left behind by Jorge Lorenzo’s Fiat Yamaha when it expired during Saturday’s session.

While de Puniet suffered a broken left tibia and fibula in the incident, undergoing surgery on Sunday night, while Espargaro discovered that he has a possible fracture of the C7 vertebra.

“Unfortunately I found de Puniet’s bike that was lying on the track in front of me and I could not avoid it,” he explained. “They have found that my vertebra C7 is broken. Tonight we will send the X-ray to Spain so that my doctor can see them and check if it is new or old fracture.”

Despite the injury, Espargaro hopes to race this weekend at Laguna Seca in the United States.